Jeremiah 21-36 A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by (Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)

126 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

people, and the Promised Land as having been reduced to a burned-out waste.

The parallel texts:

Deut 29:23-25[Eng 29:24-26]

And all the nations

will say,

'Why has Yahweh done thus to

this land;

what caused this great display of

anger?'

And they will say, 'Because they

abandoned

the covenant of Yahweh, the God

of their fathers, which he made

with

them when he brought them

from the land

of Egypt, and they went and

served other gods, and worshiped

them .... '

fer 22:8-9

And many nations will pass by this

city, and

they will say each person to his

fellow,

'Why has Yahweh done thus to this

great city?'

And they will say, 'Because they

abandoned

the covenant of Yahweh their God

and

worshiped other gods and served

them.'

For other question-and-answer forms in Jeremiah (5: 19; 9: 11-13 [Eng 9: 12-14];
16: 10-13 ), and one of comparable nature in the Annals of Ashurbanipal, see
Note for 5: 19. Compare also 1 Kgs 9:8-9 where, as in the present dialogue and
in Deut 29:23-25, the question will be asked not by Judahites but by people of
other nations. The envisioned question here deals with the fate of Jerusalem
(Rudolph; Weiser; Thiel 1973: 240), not just the palace and not the land as a
whole. But there is no reason (with Thiel) to date the dialogue after the fall of
Jerusalem. It could certainly have preceded the fall.

8. And many nations. The LXX omits "many," which can be attributed to
   haplography (homoeoteleuton: ym ... ym). The adjective need not be taken as
   a borrowing from 25: 14 (pace Janzen 1973: 44; and Holladay). Also to be re-
   jected is the emendation by Volz and Rudolph to "many peoples" ("viele
   Leute"). The source passage of Deut 29:23[Eng 29:24] has "all the nations."
   each person to his fellow. 4QJera has <a[ re<ehu, whereas MT has >e[ re<ehu.
   Janzen (1973: 181) calls <a[ a copyist's error in anticipation of the next <at,
   which it need not be. The interchange of >e[ and <a[ is found throughout the
   book of Jeremiah (see Note for 11:2).


9. Because. Hebrew <a[ «Her. A match for the preceding <aEng 29:24-25, as also in Deut 29:23-24[Eng 29:24-25].